Available Darkness was the first book that Sean and I ever wrote together. In fact, we wouldn’t even be writing today if not for that book, which we started waaaaaay back in 2008, and we finished in 2011. We took a bit longer to write a book back then! As Sean and I are finishing up the third and final book in the series (coming in June!), we decided to go back and read the first two books in the series. Available Darkness: Book Two is one of my favorite books we’ve written, with some of my favorite scenes involving one of my favorite characters, Abigail. And despite being a few years old now, it still stands up well, I think. But the first book was a bit harder to read. It was a bit clunky compared to our current stuff. And that kinda sucks. And it’s kinda the reason we don’t talk about it more. “Hey, we’ve got this AWESOME series that you HAVE to read. But, um, you’ve gotta get past some clunky writing in the first book.” That doesn’t exactly sell the series! So we decided to revise it, going through the whole first book and fixing what needed fixing. It was mostly story flow and some typos. We didn’t change the actual story itself. So if you read the book, you definitely don’t need to re-read it! We just wanted to make it a better reading experience. To that end, we also had our editor Jason work his magic on it. And if you’re going to remodel the house, you can’t forget the exterior. We also commissioned new...

We’re HUGE fans of short stories here at Collective Inkwell. We’ve been reading them since we were kids and writing them since 2011. We started Dark Crossings as our short story moniker to pay homage to shows like The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Outer Limits and Tales from the Darkside. But they’ve always had a limited audience compared to our series and standalone books. Part of that, I think, is because of the price. Three bucks is a bit too much for one short story (save for something novella length). But .99 knocks us down to a 35% royalty at Amazon. So we came up with an idea — a Dark Crossings Double Feature. Two stories, one from Sean and one from me (Dave), along with Authors’ Notes for about $1.50 per story — or $2.99 a book. But the only way I think this will really work is if we put the short stories into KDP Select (meaning the stories will be exclusive to Amazon for a while). Our shorts haven’t sold well on the other platforms to date, and it makes no sense putting them everywhere for the few people who might want them. Not when we could be getting the promotion that comes with being Amazon exclusive, promotion which might actually earn back the investment we put into the stories (covers, editing, etc). BUT … we don’t want to alienate our Apple, Kobo, and Nook readers. So here’s what we’re going to do. We’re releasing our first double feature on Gumroad FIRST for a LIMITED TIME. Exclusive until Saturday night (1/16/16). You can pick up Dark...

YESTERDAY’S GONE: SEASON FIVE Time is running out. There are 11 alien vials left, and whoever has them holds the fate of humanity in their hands. Will the world succumb to The Darkness or be saved by The Light? Black Island Guardsmen are racing to save the world, but to do so they must put Paola in a danger unlike anything she’s ever faced. What lengths will The Guardsmen go through to get the vials? Can Mary protect her daughter from an insidious alien that has already destroyed so much? Will Luca be mankind’s savior or its final judge? Can Boricio overcome his past, or will he succumb to his one weakness — an infected Rose? Find out in this penultimate game changing season leading to the insane final sixth season of CI’s bestselling post-apocalyptic thriller. GET SEASON FIVE TODAY! All six episodes will be available on October 13th at Amazon. And the full season will be available in six weeks at Amazon, and in 90 days everywhere else. If you’re a Sterling & Stone Platinum Reader, then Yesterday’s Gone Season 5 is already in your Member’s Library. If you’re not an S&S Platinum Reader, you can click here to become one today! Or, if you’re not a member, you can also click here to buy it directly from us (but only until this Friday, October...

So a while ago, Hugh Howey did a dance video when he reached 100 reviews for a little book you might of heard of called Wool. While our series Yesterday’s Gone: Season One has more than 600 something reviews (thanks, Goners!), WhiteSpace: Season One was taking F O R E V E R to get to 100 reviews, so I took a page from Hugh, and decided I’d bribe our readers with some sexy dance moves. I said that once WhiteSpace: Season One got 100 reviews, I’d make an ass out of myself to the song they chose. They chose Thrift Shop by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. And then many months passed. I thought maybe people had forgotten. And I was relieved, as I hate dancing. Namely because I suck at it, and I’m a big giant fat guy with the grace of an elephant… an elephant with broken legs. Then last week, Donald Wells emailed me to say, “Hey, I left the 100th review! You owe me a dance.” Bastard! Er, I mean, thank you, Donald. I emailed Donald back, may have called him a bastard, and he said not to worry, he wouldn’t hold me to it. I said, no, I promised to make an ass of myself, and… An ass I do make of myself. So, here you go, Donald, and everyone else who left a review. Before you watch, I should warn you: when I showed this video to my wife, she stared at it through closed fingers like you would a car accident, scary movie, or natural disaster. Frankly, I think this is worse...

The first death which truly affected me was that of my maternal grandfather. I was eight or nine. I remember people coming over to the house and talking in hushed whispers around me, pretending everything was okay. But I knew it wasn’t. My mother eventually broke the news to me, which was tough for her as it was her father, and she knew how much I loved him. He was a tough old guy who had survived World War 2, a heart attack, electrocution, and diabetes. He also spoke his mind no matter who he pissed off. But he was always kind to me, and his loss cut deep. Even decades later, I see how much his death impacted his offspring and their families in negative ways. We’re never the same when someone close to us dies. We’re never really whole again. For months after his death, I waited for his ghost to return, to say goodbye to me. At the time I was reading lots of ghost stories, and truly believed ghosts might exist, if you just allowed yourself to see them. The problem with adults, I’d figured, was that they couldn’t see ghosts among us because they’d stopped believing in such things. But I was wide-eyed, young, and ready to believe. I oftentimes went to bed, watching, waiting, thinking every noise and movement in my dark room might be him. I was both afraid and excited at the prospect of seeing my grandfather again. Even though I was too young to recognize it, I needed closure. So I waited every night for his ghost to come. While...